TOWER-SOUDAN— It’s likely back to the drawing board for the Tower-Breitung Wastewater Board after a lone bid for their planned drinking water treatment plant came in nearly $4 million above the engineer’s most recent estimate.
The project, proposed three years ago to address concerns about drinking water quality, was originally expected to cost about $4.5 million. The city was later awarded a $3.375 million grant from the U.S. Army Corps, which was expected to fund three-quarters of the project. But delays due to the COVID pandemic and the rising cost of construction, pushed the price tag for the project far higher.
The city’s engineers had most recently increased their cost estimate to $5.5 million, which had pushed the communities to delay action while they sought ways to fill the funding gap. But that gap has now become a canyon as the sole bid, from Lakehead Construction, opened on Tuesday, came in at a whopping $9.1 million, or more than double the original estimate for the project.
The Tower-Breitung Wastewater Board took no action on the bid at a special meeting this week, but Tower Clerk-Treasurer Michael Schultz predicted that the board won’t move forward with the project based on the current bid.
Schultz said the city can reach out to the Army Corps to see if any other funding is available, but an earlier request to the Corps for additional funding was declined. Schultz said the city could also reach out to the Public Facilities Authority to see if the latest quote could allow for a higher percentage of grant funding. At this point, however, there are no guarantees, which could put the entire project, including the Army Corps, in danger.
Once a project was approved, the wastewater board was supposed to be able to use the grant funds to pay for a roughly $250,000 in engineering fees already incurred for the project. The wastewater board would likely be on the hook for those expenses should the project not move forward.